Fernand LÉGER 1881-1955 Showing a baluster pillar, a stair, and a simply worked banister, the painting is remarkable for its rigorous layout. The interior architectural elements, isolated in a close-up view, stand out from the color composition. With an overall neutral gray, beige, and black range of colors, only the baluster and the knob are painted red. Fernand Léger zooms in on this object in pure, invigorating tones that set off and energize the whole. This painting is the subject for the smaller half of the Composition à l'escalier. In analyzing Composition à l'escalier, we must consider the artist's main concerns during this period. In a way, Léger was seeking to create a solid partnership with architects to resolve the “wall-architecture-painting” equation. Composition à l'escalier is actually a painting of architecture. Christian Zervos wrote in the above-quoted article: “The years 1925-26 marked Léger's definitive accomplishments in static painting. Even the mechanical elements become static. This is the artist's architectural period. Paintings from this time no longer break with architecture, as during the dynamic period, but are intimately entwined. Visitors to the Le Corbusier pavilion at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in 1925 were aware of this. This is one of Léger's most successful periods.” Two styles, and two epochs, play unequal roles on the surface of Composition à l'escalier. To the right, classical architecture is represented by a house with a pointed roof, while to the left the new architecture of the early 20th century is represented by an imposing rectangular tower pierced with porthole-like windows and openings overlapping along the side. By 1922 the modern style had been invaded by a number of forms borrowed from the ocean liner. Architects transposed the gigantic size of the ship's volumes and portholes, turrets, and layered decks to their designs. Fernand Léger was very familiar with the architecture of his time, and maintained intellectual relationships with Le Corbusier and Mallet-Stevens. The latter is seen today as the most talented of the two. In 1925 he built Le Pavillon du Tourisme and the pavilion for the Ambassades at the Exposition Internationale des Arts décoratifs. In La composition à l'escalier, Léger moves his favorite color, red, onto an exterior architectural component that is specific to contemporary architecture. This enables him to express his attachment to the art he venerates as well as to confirm the constructive value, in the literal sense of the word, of color. Color no longer dresses form, but rather shapes and builds it. This is a pictorial event. In 1933, Le Corbusier wrote a remarkable text on Léger, with the following magnificent conclusion: “…Léger, touched by architecture, has grown beyond the turbulent diagonals of mechanics. Turmoil no longer inhabits the design. Turmoil is born of the forward and backward movement of colors. He uses this dynamic to compose. With his architectural aspirations he has kept the right angle that orders the forward-backward movement of color. Such painting is sister to architecture.” *Catalog for the exhibit Henri Laurens. Retrospective, Musée d'art Moderne de la Communauté Urbaine de Lille, Villeneuve d'Ascq, December 12, 1992 - April 12, 1993. **Georges Bauquier, CR, n° 383. LITERATURE: Christian Zervos, “Fernand Léger est-il cubiste?” in Cahiers d'art, 1933, 3-4; March 17 - June 16, 1982, Paris, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, Léger et l'esprit moderne; Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Vivre dans le vrai, Paris, Adrien Maeght Éditeur, 1987; Gilles Néret, F. Léger, Nouvelles Éditions Françaises, Paris, 1990; Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue Raisonné A COMPLÉTER, Paris, Adrien Maeght Éditeur, 199? 1997-1998, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Madrid, Museo nacional Centro de arte Reina Sofia, New York, Museum of Modern Art, Fernand Léger.